A Final Meeting of Friends
by Dannor
Summary: The final time where Calvin and Hobbes meet. Calvin realizes he is no longer a child, and... well, read the rest to find out!


A Final Meeting of Friends  
  
A/N: Yes, yet another one of my infamous short stories. I was walking my dog, when I started thinking of a plot like this... Yes, I know that this has been done, but I'm doing it again.  
  
It was a bright day. Calvin had just turned tweleve. He still had his best friend, Hobbes. Only one thing was different. When Calvin was six, his parents told him they were going to have a baby. His six year old brother, Jack, was now the terror of his parent's home. Calvin's father complained about Calvin carring Hobbes around. It was true, he was now just as tall as Hobbes, maybe even a little bit taller, but that didn't matter to him. Hobbes was his best friend.  
  
"So, are you going to blow out your candles? I'm hungry!" Jack said impatiently, looking hungrily at Calvin's birthday cake. Jack looked almost exactly like Calvin had when he was six, except that he had brown hair, like his parnets.  
  
"Alright, alright..." Calvin muttered. "But first, I need to go do something." He grabbed Hobbes, and walked into the next room.  
  
"When is that kid going to give up on that stupid tiger?" Calvin's dad asked his mother, once Calvin was out of the room.  
  
"Dear, Calvin will give up on that when he was ready."  
  
  
"Well, 'ol buddy, it's been six years since we met. Six years... wow!" Calvin said, patting his tiger friend on the back.  
  
"Calvin, listen," Hobbes said, squirming uncomfortably, "I need to tell you something. You're too old for me."  
  
"What?" Calvin asked, looking at Hobbes skeptically.  
  
"When you were six, you needed a companion. Now, you have a brother and friends. And, I might at, your brother has no friends. He's just like you!" Hobbes replied.  
  
"What do you mean, 'to old for you?' You're my best friend!" Calvin said.  
  
"Calvin, you don't need me anymore. You have friends, but your little brother... he needs me," Hobbes said flatly. Calvin didn't like the way this was going.  
  
"What do you mean? You- you- you're real!" Calvin stuttered.  
  
"Calvin! Put your stupid stuffed tiger down, and cut the cake!" came Calvin's dad's voice, as if to drive a point down.  
  
Calvin gulped. His parent's had often referred to Hobbes as, "stuffed tiger," not to mention Susie, Miss Wormwood, Rosalyn. But Hobbes had always been a real tiger. Who could talk, Calvin thought with dismay. Try as he might, Calvin could never find another talking animal. He also realized, just now, that his parent's never noticed when Calvin was transmogrified. Or when he time travled.  
  
"Hobbes," Calvin said, tears flowing freely down his face. "Don't- don't go!" He grabbed onto Hobbes, as if to try to keep him there forever. But Hobbes was rapidly changing.   
  
His fur, which Calvin had thought looked so sleek and shiny was now becoming to look fake. His tale, which Calvin had seen swing from side to side so many times, became stationary. His paws turned from the paws of that of a tiger to that of a stuffed tiger; no "claws of death", no pads, just white stubs. "Good bye, Calvin," Hobbes managed to say before his tiger face, his killer eye, his mouth, all turned into a stuffed tiger. Hobbes's eyes, which Calvin had seen only minutes before, were now black beads, scraped up in several places. His whiskers were now glossy. Hobbes was no more.  
  
"Hobbes," Calvin said, hugging the stuffed tiger, now many sizes smaller than Calvin was used to. "Good bye."  
  
Calvin slowly went into the kitchen, where his parents and younger brother were waiting. He had stopped in the bathroom and wiped his eyes. He didn't want his parents to know he'd been crying. His head was swimming with thoughts. Six years of his life were spent with Hobbes, now, Calvin realized, a stuffed tiger. He had gone into the woods many times alone, faced many dangers. All of his life was different than he thought it was.  
  
"Well, finally!" Jack said, as Calvin took the cake cutting knife and cut the cake into pieces. He normally would have cut one for Hobbes, but he didn't this time.  
  
As his parents finished the chours of "Happy Birthday," Jack noticed Hobbes. "Hey!" he said, "a tiger!" Jack pulled out a chair, and put Hobbes in it.   
  
Calvin's heart left. Hobbes wasn't gone, he was still alive. He looked at Jack, and at the stuffed tiger that was Hobbes.  
  
It winked. 


End file.
